What a man, that Simeon. Although it is assumed he was an old man, gray and wrinkled, his age is never explicitly stated. This prophet, as he was, had spent his life waiting for God's promised salvation. He had spent his life waiting for God's promise to him to be fulfilled—it had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not see death before he had seen the Lord's Christ.

And so it was, after Simeon's wait, it was time for Mary, the Mother of God, to perform the ritual of purification, required by the Law of Moses for all women, 40 days after they had given birth. He was also her firstborn son, so there was another law to keep: “Every male who first opens the womb shall be called holy to the Lord”—so it was that Mary and Joseph brought the infant Jesus to the temple to present Him to the Lord. Simeon was there; right away he recognized this ordinary-looking child as the fulfillment of God's promise.

The author of the letter to the Hebrews wrote, “Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world.” (Hebrews 1:1-2) While God was always present with His people, as you might recall from a sermon three weeks ago, He didn’t always speak directly to them, certainly not as a group so that everyone could hear. That said, God is always present in His Word, and long ago His Word was most often proclaimed by the prophets. That’s the way God spoke to His people long ago, revealing His Word to the prophets who would reveal God to the people through that same Word.

But now, in these latter days, God’s presence among men is through His Son. There are still prophets, so to speak, as I mentioned in a Sunday sermon several days ago, who relate to men the Word of God. However, unlike the prophets of long ago, the prophets today speak the Word already revealed in the Scripture, nothing that was told them in a vision or dream, because that’s how God interacted long ago. So, to you it is given to hear the Word of God as it has been handed down from the Apostles and Prophets, recounted for you again and again, because you need to hear it again and again, hear the message of the Gospel again and again, that the Son of God was incarnate of the Holy Spirit, born of the virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, buried, and rose again, all for your forgiveness, life, and salvation.

The prophet Isaiah foretold it: “Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a Son, and shall call His name Immanuel.” (Isaiah 7:14) Matthew translates it for you: “God with us.” This is what you heard about at the first Mid-week Advent service. Immanuel is an amazing thing—but so is a virgin conceiving!

A virgin conceiving?! That’s not how this works. What does it mean? It means that the Son she carries is no ordinary Boy. He has no human father, which means that He has no direct human link to the fallen nature and sin of Adam. “From sire to son to bane descends,” you have sung before, just as it is proclaimed in the Scriptures. (cf. Romans 5:12-14, 18-19) The rest of you have human fathers, so like your fathers before you, you have sin.

There’s a word that I’ve used many times in the past which comes up with this lesson again and again: Theotokos. It’s a Greek word that means God-bearer, though it is often translated, for the sake of simplicity and impact, Mother of God. If such a term makes you feel uneasy, that’s unfortunate, but it’s understandable that it would cause some level of unease.

Mary was officially given the title by decree at the Council of Ephesus in AD431. It’s not that she wasn’t referred to as God-bearer or Mother of God before this, but at that council the doctrine was officially codified. Given the Lutheran Church’s respect and admiration for the past, and the deep connection she still maintains to the past, the doctrine codified at Ephesus is Lutheran doctrine. Codified or not, however, it is still meet, right, and salutary to call Mary Theotokos, God-bearer, and the Mother of God.

In using that term, I’ve also stated that it says more about Mary’s Son than it does about Mary. Mary is the bearer of God, the birth-giver of God. Whom she bore in her womb is God—God-in-the-flesh. Yes, He is God, “of the substance of the Father,” but He is also man: flesh like yours, bones like your, blood like yours, but conceived and born and lived without sin. Jesus is man and God, and that is why the Council of Ephesus decreed that Mary is to be called Theotokos. Jesus is unconfusedly, unchangeably, indivisibly, and inseparably God and man, and the title Theotokos confesses this in opposition to teachings condemned at Ephesus, specifically that Mary is the mother only of the human nature of Jesus Christ which the divine later mysteriously inhabited.

There is a bit that is lost in most English translations of what Jesus said to John’s disciples before they departed. It’s one thing to be offended by Jesus and what He says. I’d wager that everyone here has been offended from time to time by who Jesus is and what He has said. The very idea of someone else dying in your place for your sins SHOULD be offensive to you: after all, He didn’t deserve it, but you did! No, Jesus isn’t cursing those who are offended by Him.

Jesus said, “Blessed is the one who is not scandalized by me.” To be scandalized by who Jesus is, what He has said, and what He has done is something that goes beyond mere offense. It goes right to the heart of what John’s disciples asked Jesus: “Are you the one who is to come, or shall we look for another?”